Electronic information systems including communication networks and various computer networks have become prevalent and relied-upon in all aspects of today's society. This is true in the technological communities of business and industry, the military, government and in various other areas of information technology and communications. Many businesses, technologies, governments and people are critically dependent upon the uninterrupted and reliable operation of these information systems. An information warfare or other attack on such an information system can disable the system and bring activity to a standstill. The impact of such an attack may be devastating and therefore such attacks upon information systems must be prevented. Measures should be taken to study the attacks that may occur, predict when they may occur and also predict their impact upon the information system. Understanding the impact of an expected attack increases information assurance for mission critical components of a communication network.
One of the most lethal and damaging attacks is a flood attack. Such an attack clogs up traffic within the information system and can disable a system by denying a user access to the system. It would be advantageous to assess the impact a flood attack would have upon a system. It is difficult to assess the impact such a flood attack would have on a system without actually attacking the system, however. This is obviously undesirable because if the flood attack is actually run on the system, it may destroy or disable the system.
It would therefore be desirable to study the impact of a flood attack upon an information system by simulating the attack and evaluating the impact of the simulated attack upon the system. The simulated flood attack may also, however, adversely impact system operation. It would be therefore be further desirable to simulate actual system operation during the simulated flood attack to assess the impact such an attack would have upon the system without affecting the normal operation of the real system.